Manage Direct Debit User Guide

Download User Guide here.

Introduction
Logging In and Getting Started
Setting Up a New Direct Debit
Pre-Schedule Accounts
Variable Direct Debits
Search for an Existing Direct Debit Account
Viewing Existing Direct Debit Account Details
Customer Communications - Email Notifications
Payment Notification via Email and/or SMS
Failed DD Payments
Set up Rules and Bacs Requirements

1 Introduction

The purpose of this user guide is to illustrate the Manage DD permissions of the allpay Direct Debit portal that you will use daily.

By using this guide a user will be able to complete the following tasks:

Access the allpay Direct Debit portal
Log on to the allpay Direct Debit portal
Create a new Direct Debit
Search for an existing Direct Debit
Amend an existing Direct Debit
Close a Direct Debit
View Failed payments

For details on File Import/Export and Senior DD permissions please see the complementary document “Senior DD guide”.

1.1 Accessing the allpay Direct Debit Portal

To access the allpay Direct Debit portal please use the website address https://login.allpay.net

1.2 What are Direct Debits?

Direct Debits are a simple, flexible, and automated method of payment collection. A new Direct Debit may be set up in one of two ways:

The primary method involves completing a Paperless mandate via telephone or in person with the customer
The secondary method is by customer completion of a paper mandate

1.3 Key Information about Direct Debits

Only set up a Paperless Direct Debit when you are dealing directly with the bank account holder
If at any point you are unable to proceed with a Paperless Direct Debit, a paper Direct Debit mandate may be used
If the bank account requires joint signatories, the DDI (Direct Debit Instruction) must be paper-based and signed by both signatories
Advance notification is required when processing all new Direct Debit instructions. This period must include two further working days to allow for the postal system to deliver the Direct Debit creation confirmation letter or email
Advance notification is required to process all changes to the amount, date, or frequency of the Direct Debit. This period must include two working days to allow for the postal system to deliver the amendment confirmation letter or email
The initial collection date must be a working day
A Direct Debit may be closed at any time. If the Direct Debit collection has entered the BACS cycle (three working days before the collection date), the final collection cannot be cancelled but the customer can contact their bank and attempt to stop the payment themselves
If closing and re-opening a Direct Debit on a Bureau scheme, the minimum time required between the two actions is 1 working day

2 Logging in and Getting Started

Log into the Payments Hub and navigate to Direct Debits. If you don’t have access to the Payments Hub please speak to your administrator.

3 Setting up a New Direct Debit

This section details the 4 steps to complete to set up a new Direct Debit Instruction. When creating a new paperless Direct Debit Instruction (DDI), each step contains a script.

Note: If the script has a red asterisk next to it, it must be read out loud to the customer as it is written. If setting up a Paperless Direct Deb it using a paper mandate, the script will not be required.

In either case, the following steps must be completed to create a new Direct Debit:

3.1 Step 1: Customer Details

1. From the ‘Direct Debits’ menu at the top of the page select ‘New DD’ or select the ‘Create a DD’ quick link

2. From the next screen, select the 'Client code’ from the drop-down box. This is the scheme you want you set up the DDI on.

Note: A red asterisk next to a mandatory field indicates that the setup process cannot continue if the field is not completed. You cannot continue the setup process if you do not populate these fields.

Note: You must ask the customer the 3 scripted qualifying questions before you can proceed in setting up a Paperless Direct Debit Instruction (DDI).

Note: If ‘No’ is selected for any of these questions a follow-up message will be displayed to inform the user that a Paperless Direct Debit cannot be processed, and a paper mandate must be completed. Once the customer has completed and signed the paper mandate you can set up the Direct Debit on the portal.

3. Enter your customer’s ‘Client reference’. Examples of this include the customer and Tenancy Reference number or Council Tax reference. The reference entered here will be used to identify your customer and when notifying you of payments made by them (references may contain a maximum of 16 alphanumeric characters, including special characters). You can change this reference at any time in the customer contact details

4. Enter your customer’s ‘Last name’

Note: Once you have populated the ‘Last name’ field the portal will perform a check on whether the combination of stated Client Code, Client Reference and Last name is already on the portal. If a match is found the address details will be populated and the user will be required to confirm, amend, or enter new details. If an account exists with a Live Direct Debit the user will be able to view the Direct Debit or enter new details. You cannot have more than one live Direct Debit with this combination.

5. Enter your customer’s ‘Title &Initials’

6. Enter your customer’s address. This is the address of the property where the customer resides. Please enter the full address, paying attention to the Postcode

7. Select ‘Next’ to continue to the next step

3.2 Step 2: Bank Details

This next question asks if the person paying the Direct Debit is different from the customer setup in Step 1:

1. If the customer details are the same and there is no difference, select ‘No’ and the Name and address details supplied in Step 1 will be copied over to the ‘Bank Account Holders Details’. If someone other than the customer is the Bank Account holder for the Direct Debit setup and therefore different, select ‘Yes’ and enter the payer’s name and full address in the ‘Bank Account Holders Details’ section

Note: The Direct Debit Setup confirmation letter will be posted to the Account Holder address.

1. Under the ‘Bank Account Holder’s Details’ enter the ‘Last name’, ‘Title & Initials’, and their ‘Address’. Then enter the ‘Name of accountholder’, ‘Sort code’, and ‘Account Number’

Note: The Sort code and Account Number details will now be validated using a modulus check, and an error message will be displayed if the supplied details don’t match.

2. The payer should be asked if they have used this account to make direct Debit payments before. Select either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ and then select ‘Next’ to continue

Note: This isn’t a qualifying question so you can select No, this question helps to identify if the account the customer is using for the Direct Debit is suitable some accounts don’t allow Direct Debits (such as savings accounts or basic card cash accounts).

3.3 Step 3: Payment Details

Note: Advance notification is required when setting up all-new Direct Debit Instructions. This period must include an additional two working days to allow for the postal system to deliver the Direct Debit creation confirmation letter.

1. Using the calendar, select the ‘Initial date’, which will be the date of the first payment collection. Dates displayed in dark grey are available to use, dates in light grey are unavailable and cannot be selected from the calendar. Use the arrows to the left and right of the month displayed at the top to move between the months

Note: The date of the initial payment MUST be a working day.

2. Enter the ‘Initial amount’, which will be the amount taken for the first collection

3. Select the appropriate duration for the Direct Debit. Choose from either:

‘Ongoing’ - payments will be collected on a frequency basis (frequency set by user) until the Direct Debit is closed or amended

‘Fixed’ – this will allow the user to set the number of payments (up to a maximum of 999) to be collected before the Direct Debit stops collecting further payments

4. If you select ‘Fixed’, another field will appear for you to enter the ‘Total number of payments’ which is inclusive of the initial payment. e.g. Entering a value of 10 will mean an initial payment and 9subsequent payments

Note: If you want to set up a one-off payment collection, select the ‘Fixed’ option and enter the number ‘1’ in the ‘Total number of payments’ box. The subsequent payment information and frequency will no longer appear on the screen.

5. Select the ‘Frequency’ of the payments from the drop-down menu. If the option you require is not available to you, please contact the administrator for the allpay DD portal within your organization

6. Using the calendar, select the ‘Subsequent date’ field which will be the fixed date for all subsequent payment collections. Dates displayed in dark grey only are available to use

Note: If the frequency is set for either weekly, fortnightly, or 4 weekly collections, you must select a day of the week for collections (Mon-Fri). If the frequency is set for monthly, quarterly, six-monthly or annually you must select a specific date for collection. If the scheduled collection falls on a weekend or bank holiday, allpay will collect on the next available working day.

7. Enter the ‘Subsequent amount’, which will be the amount taken for subsequent payments

8. Select ‘Next’ to continue

Note: You can go ‘Back’ or ‘Cancel’ at any time during the setup process. If you chose to go ‘Back’ the portal will retain the information previously inputted. If you select ‘Cancel’ you will lose all the information for this instruction and the portal will take you back to Step1.

3.4 Step 4: Confirmation

1. The final stage requires the verification of information provided in previous steps:

Relay the script to your customer
The script will contain details of how the Direct Debit payment will appear on the customer’s bank statement
Confirm that the bank account number and sort code are correct before selecting ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
To complete the process, select ‘Confirm’. If you wish to change any of the details provided, select the ‘Back’ option to navigate back to the relevant step. Should you wish to cancel, select ‘Cancel’ to clear all inputs and be taken back to Step 1

The Direct Debit will now be created and become live on the portal. If the Client code is set up for approvals and the user does not have Approver rights, then the Direct Debit will become live on the portal once it’s been approved.

2. Thank the customer for their time

3. The following screen will now be displayed

Choose either:

'Click here’ to view or edit the Direct Debit
‘Main Menu’ to be taken back to the Welcome screen, or
‘Create New DD’ to be taken back to Step 1

4 Pre-Schedule Accounts

Pre-schedule accounts -Important points to remember:

A Pre-schedule account is used to set up a Direct Debit Instruction to capture payer details in advance of setting up a payment schedule. To find out more about Pre-Schedule accounts, please speak to your allpay Sales Account Manager.

To set up a Pre-Schedule account on the allpay Direct Debit portal, follow Steps 1 and 2 asper Section 3 ‘Setting up a new Direct Debit’, you will then be given the option to set up a payment schedule or select ‘Next’ to complete Step 4 the setup.

Note: A Pre-schedule account will close if there is no activity on that account within 13 months of opening.

Note: Payment schedules can be added at any time within 13 months of setting up the Pre-schedule account.

To set up a payment schedule on a Pre-Schedule account, you can add payment details via the customer account screen (see the section on Amend DDs).

5 Variable Direct Debits

Variable Direct Debits allow you to make flexible, ad-hoc collections whilst still utilising all the benefits of our Direct Debit portal.

A variable DD can be set up face to face, over the phone or online, and can be adaptable to your customers’ changing circumstances.

When setting up a variable DD, only the initial payment is required in the Payment details step, you can then add further payments as and when required through either manual input, bulk upload, or API.

For full details of Variable Direct Debits please speak to your allpay Sales Account Manager.

Note: Variable DDs must be on a separate client code to standard DDs.

5.1 Creating a New Variable Direct Debit

To create a new variable Direct Debit, follow the instructions detailed in Section 3 for Steps 1 & 2 – Customer details and Bank details.

In Step 3 - Payment details, you will have the option to set up the initial payment only.

1. Using the calendar, select the ‘Initial date’, which will be the date of the first payment collection

2. Enter the ’Initial amount’ to be collected

3. Select ’Next’ to continue

4. Complete the set up in Step 4

6 Search for an Existing Direct Debit Account

1. From the ‘Direct Debits’ tab, select ‘Amend existing DD’

2. Alternatively, you can search for an account by selecting the ‘Search’ option from the top menu bar and selecting either the ‘Account’, ‘Direct Debit Reference’, or ‘Bank Account Holder’ option, or use the ‘Search for a DD’ quick link on the Home page

Note: Using either the ‘Amend existing DD’ or the ‘Search’ option will allow for the same functionality.

3. You can search for existing Direct Debits using 3 different search criteria:

‘Account’ - You can search for an account by selecting the ‘Client code’ from the drop-down box and entering either the ‘Client reference’ or ‘Last name’

‘Direct Debit reference’ – You can search for an account by entering the ‘DD reference’. The customer can locate this on their setup or amendment letter/email

Note: Selecting the ‘Live Direct Debits only’ checkbox will exclude closed or dormant Direct Debits.

Bank account holder’ - You can search for an account by selecting the ‘Client code’ from the drop-down box and entering either the ‘Account Name’, ‘Last name’, ‘Address line 1’, ‘Postcode’ or a combination of any of the above options. You must populate at least 1 field to search for an account. You can search for ‘Live Direct Debits only’ by ticking the box

Note: Please use the ‘Account’ search option if the bank account holder and account holder are the same people.

4. Select ‘Search’ to continue

5. From the ‘Account Search Result’ page, the list of applicable accounts will appear. Select the appropriate account by selecting ‘View Details’ to the right of the account you want to view

6. The next screen will show the ‘Direct Debit summary’, which at this stage will display any live and/or closed direct debits

7. The ‘Payment history summary’ will also be shown, which will show payments

7 Viewing Existing Direct Debit Account Details

1. To view an existing Direct Debit account, select ‘View Details’ next to the Direct Debit currently set up in the ‘Direct Debit summary’ section

2. The ‘Direct Debit summary’ screen will display the ‘Current payment schedule’, the ‘Future payment schedule’ and the ‘Payment history summary’

Note: If a Direct Debit is created that only has one payment collection then only the “once only” collection will be shown.

3. An overview of the screen is as follows:

‘Current payment schedule’

‘Amount’ – The amount due to be collected

‘Next payment date’ – This is the date the next payment will be collected on

‘Previous payment date’ – This is the date the previous payment was taken

‘Frequency’ – The frequency of the payment collection i.e. Weekly, Monthly etc.

‘Collection day’ – The day Direct Debits are collected on. This will either be a calendar date for monthly, quarterly, six-monthly and annual frequencies i.e.21st; alternatively, a day of the week i.e. Wednesday for weekly frequencies e.g. weekly, fortnightly and four-weekly

‘First payment date’ – The actual date the first collection for this DDI was processed

‘Total payments’ – The total number of payments to collect. If this is an on going collection, ‘Ongoing’ will be displayed here

‘Final scheduled payment date’ – If this is a fixed payment schedule, this will be the date the final payment will be collected. For ongoing payments, ‘Ongoing’ will be displayed

‘Payments requested’ – The total number of payments that have been collected so far for this DDI

‘Remaining payments’ – The remaining number of payments that are due to be collected. For on going payments, ‘Ongoing’ will be displayed here

‘Future payment schedule’

‘Amount’ – The Amount due to be collected

‘Frequency’ – The frequency of the payment collection i.e. Weekly, Monthly etc.

‘First payment date’ – The actual date the first collection is processed

‘Total payments’ – The total number of payments to collect. If this is an on going collection, ‘Ongoing’ will be displayed here

‘Final scheduled payment date’ – If this is a fixed payment schedule, this will be the date the final payment will be collected. For ongoing payments, ‘Ongoing’ will be displayed

‘Payments to request’ - The total number of payments that will be collected. If this is an on going collection, ‘Ongoing’ will be displayed here. This number may differ from the ‘Total payments’, depending on any conflicting payment schedules that occur in the future

4. To view the Bank account details, select ‘Bank account’ in the top right-hand corner. This will display the ‘Account Name’, ‘Account Number’ and ‘Sort code’

Note: The customer’s Bank Details cannot be amended on the portal. If your customer wants to change the account the Direct Debits are taken from, you will need to close the existing Direct Debit and set up a new instruction with the new bank details.

5. To view the associated client code information, select ‘Client code’ in the top right-hand corner. You can view the ‘Status’ of the Client Code(Live, Pending or Closed), confirmation of the ‘SUN’ (Service User Number) that is associated with your scheme, and confirmation of the ‘Type’ of scheme

7.1 Amending Customer Contact Details

1. From the Direct Debit summary screen, the Customer Contact details can be viewed and amended by selecting ‘Contact details’ from the top-right menu

2. This will take you to a screen that displays the current address details on the portal where you can amend as required. The ‘Account holder details’ are the details of the person the Direct Debit has been set up for. The ‘Bank account holder details’ are the contact details for the Bank account holder the Direct Debit is currently being collecting from

3. You can make changes to the client reference here if required

4. Click ‘Save’ to save the changes or ‘Cancel’ to discard any changes

Note: If you need to change the ‘Bank account holder details’ you will need to uncheck the ‘Use account holder details’ box. Select ‘Save’ for each set of address details that you amend.

5. To return to the Direct Debit details screen, select the ‘Return to DD details’ button in the top right-hand corner

7.2 Amend a Direct Debit Payment Schedule (Immediate Change)

A payment schedule contains details of payment collections, including initial and subsequent payments.

For initial setups, you will see 2 payment schedules; a one-off collection for the initial payment and an ongoing or fixed schedule for subsequent payment collections. Any future changes that are due to be applied can also be viewed on this screen. The user also has the option in this screen to:

Edit and delete future payment schedules
Add further payment schedules
Complete current schedules

Note: To delete a future schedule is referred to as Cancelled. To delete a current schedule is referred to as Completed.

These steps are only to be followed if you want to amend an existing payment schedule which affects the next collection. If you wish to amend the payment schedule after the next collection, this will be a ‘Future Change’ so please see the ‘Adding a New Payment Schedule’ section 7.4:

1. To amend the Direct Debit payment schedule, select ‘Amend DD’ and select ‘Amend payments’ from the drop-down menu

2. This screen will confirm the payment schedules that are currently in place

3. To edit a payment schedule, select the ‘Edit’ symbol

Note: If you edit a schedule that is currently set up for collection or currently collecting, the change to the next collection will be IMMEDIATE and may affect the next collection date or the date that the collection will begin. To schedule a change to the collection to take effect at a later date, please see the ‘Adding a New Payment Schedule’ section 7.4.

Note: When making amendments, you must ensure you allow the required advance notice period before the changes take effect.

4. If you want to amend the date of the next collection, using the calendar select the ‘Payment date’ for the next collection

Note: Dates displayed in dark grey only are available to use. Dates in light grey are unavailable and cannot be selected from the calendar. Use the arrows to the left and right of the month displayed at the top to move between months.

5. If you want to change the duration of the payment schedule, select the ‘Option’

‘Ongoing’ payments will be collected on an ongoing basis until the Direct Debit is closed or amended, ‘Fixed’ will define the number of payments you wish to collect before the Direct Debit stops collecting further payments

6. If you select the ‘Fixed’ option, an additional box will appear where you can enter the ‘Remaining payments to collect’

7. If you want to change the frequency of the collections, select ‘Frequency’. If you have chosen the ‘Fixed’ option and only selected 1 payment to collect, the option to choose the ‘Frequency’ will no longer appear

8. If you want to change the collection amount, you can edit the ‘Payment amount’

9. For any changes made, select ‘Apply’ to accept the changes or ‘Cancel’ to discard the changes

Note: If changes are made to an existing schedule and there are other schedules due to take effect or are currently collecting, an orange warning triangle will show in the Total payments column against any affected existing schedules as a result of any amendments you have saved.

Note: If the payment amount or date of a currently collecting schedule is edited (and confirmed) this will be deemed as a completed schedule and the edited payment will be deemed as a future payment.

10. The total number of remaining payments to collect on the old payment schedule can be viewed in the ‘Remaining payments’ column

11. The ‘Final scheduled payment date’ column displays the current payment schedule

12. You can undo any changes you have made at this point, just select ‘Undo’ for each line of the schedule you have changed, or ‘Undo all’ to undo all changes

Note: At this stage, the changes have NOT been submitted to allpay to process. Please follow the ‘Confirming Changes’ steps in Section 7.5 to submit changes to allpay.

7.3 Delete an Existing Direct Debit Payment Schedule

1. Alternatively, if you want to delete a schedule, select the ‘Delete’ button against the applicable schedule on the right-hand side

2. A red circle with a minus sign will appear against the Row Number on the left-hand side to confirm the schedule that is due for deletion

3. To undo any changes, select the ‘Undo’ button on the right-hand side to reinstate the previously deleted payment schedule

Note: At this stage, the changes have NOT been submitted to allpay to process. Please follow the ‘Confirming Changes’ steps in Section 7.5 to submit changes to allpay.

7.4 Adding a New Payment Schedule(Future Change)

This option can be used to schedule any future changes that need to be applied to Direct Debit collections. Changes to collections will take effect from the initial payment date that you specify:

1. To add a new Payment Schedule, select ‘Add payments’

2. Using the calendar, select the ‘Initial payment date’. Dates that are not greyed out can be selected and available to use. Dates in light grey are unavailable and cannot be selected from the calendar. Use the arrows to the left and right of the month/year to move between months

Note: This is the date that the new payment schedule will start collecting from.

3. Next, enter the ‘Initial payment amount’

4. Next, select the ‘Option’. For ‘Fixed’ collections, you can then amend the number of payments to collect by entering a number in the ‘Total number of payments’ box

5. Select the collection ‘Frequency’ from the drop-down menu. If you have chosen the ‘Fixed’ option and only selected 1 payment to collect, the option to choose the ‘Frequency’ will no longer appear

6. Using the calendar, select the ‘Subsequent payment date’ to select the subsequent payday or date

7. Next, enter the ‘Subsequent amount’

8. Select ‘Apply’ to continue or ‘Cancel’ to return to the previous screen

Note: A green circle with a plus sign will appear next to the new schedule to be applied and a yellow warning triangle will appear against any existing payment schedule that has been affected by the new payment schedule.

Using the above example, the existing payment schedule on ’Row 1’ is an ’Ongoing’ collection that collects on a ’Weekly’ frequency basis. The yellow warning triangle indicates that the new Payment schedules below will impact the current ongoing collection and that the ‘Remaining payments’ have now been updated from ‘Ongoing’ to ‘1’ and the ‘Final scheduled payment date’ has been updated from ‘Ongoing’ to ‘04/02/2021’, when the new payment schedule will then take effect.

Icon definition summary

The yellow triangle indicates a new payment schedule that will interrupt the current ongoing collection

The green circular positive sign indicates that a new schedule is to be applied at a future date

9. If you need to edit or delete any payment schedules, use the ‘Edit’ and ‘Delete’ options detailed in the previous steps in this guide

10. To undo any changes, select the ‘Undo’ button to remove the newly entered payment schedule

Note: At this stage, the changes have NOT been submitted to allpay to process. Please follow the ‘Confirming Changes’ instructions below to submit the changes to allpay.

7.5 Confirming Changes

1. At this point, no changes have been permanently applied to the payment schedule. To confirm changes, you need to select the ‘Confirm applied changes’ button on the bottom left-hand side of the page or you can select ‘Undo all’ and all changes due to be confirmed will be removed

2. A confirmation box will appear, and you can select ‘Ok’ to apply the changes or select ‘Cancel’ to go back to the previous screen

3. The new ‘Future payment schedule’ will be displayed, including conflicts if appropriate. Again, you can check the total number of payments that are due on each schedule, including when the final scheduled payment is due for each schedule

Note: If changes require approval by an Approver before they are sent to allpay for processing, you will not see the new payment schedule in the ‘Future payment schedule’ until the request has been approved.

7.6 Closing a Direct Debit

1. Select ‘Amend DD’ from the menu options at the top right, then select ‘DD closure options’

2. A note appears, stating that if a payment is due to be requested in the next 3 working days before the closure date, closing the Direct Debit will not stop the payment request and the customer must contact their bank to stop the payment

3. Choose the appropriate option from the 2 that are available:

Close immediately’ - Select this option if you wish to override all uncollected payments. Changes will take effect immediately and no further payments will be collected (there is no requirement to enter a date in the date field if this option has been selected)

‘Set a future close date’’ - Select this option to continue collecting payments under the original instruction. Payments will continue to be collected until the date specified in the ‘Date’ field

4. When complete, select ‘Confirm’ to accept and a confirmation box will appear. Select ‘Ok’ to accept or ‘Cancel’ to return to the previous screen.

5. You will now be taken back to the DD Details screen

6. If you selected ‘Close immediately’, the ‘DD Status’ will now appear as closed

7. If you selected a future closure, the future closure date will be displayed under the DD Status and the ‘Payment Schedule’ will be updated

8. The ‘Final scheduled payment date’ will now be updated with the final collection date, based on the date the closure is due to be processed and the ‘Payments to request’ will detail the number of collections remaining before the Direct Debit is closed

Note: Once a Direct Debit has closed, the Instruction with the payer’s bank will be cancelled and you cannot reinstate it.

7.7 Amend or Remove a Future Closure Date

For a Direct Debit which already has a future closure date set, this can be either amended or removed by using the additional options provided:

‘Close immediately’ - Select this option if you wish to override all uncollected payments. Changes will take effect immediately and no further payments will be collected (there is no requirement to enter a date in the date field if this option has been selected) and any future closure date pending will be cancelled
‘Amend future closure date’ - Select this option if you wish to amend the date of an existing future closure (current future closure date shown by default). Payments will continue to be collected until the amended date specified in the ‘Date’ field

‘Remove future closing date’ - Select this option if you wish to remove an existing future closure. Following the confirmation, payments will continue to be collected asper the schedule

7.8 Events

The allpay Direct Debit portal offers an Event feature which has the functionality to display the customer’s Correspondence history, Full payment summary, and Future payment schedule.

To access the Event function:

1. Search for the customer’s Direct Debit account then choose ‘Events’

2. Select ‘Correspondence history’ from the drop-down menu

3. All correspondence that is related to the Direct Debit for the customer can be viewed by selecting the ‘View’ icon. A PDF version of the original will be displayed

4. If any letters have been returned undelivered, the ‘Returned reason’ will be displayed here

5. Select ‘Return to DD details’ to return to the customers' details

6. Select ‘Full payment summary’ to view the customers’ full payment summary detailing every payment and failed payment

7. Select ‘Future payment schedule’ to view the dates and amounts of the next 13 future payments

8 Customer Communications - Email Notification

If you have subscribed to email notification (to replace postal notification), you will need to capture your customers' email addresses on the DD portal.

This can be done in several ways:

New DDI – when setting up a new DD instruction you will be able to capture the customers' email address in Step2 of the process under ‘Bank account holder details’
Add to an existing DD – use the contact details section to add your customers’ email address
Bulk upload – use the ‘Bulk email import template’ available in the ‘Help and Support’ section to bulk upload customer email addresses
If any of your customers would prefer to receive letters rather than emails, please leave the email address field blank

Note: If you would like to set up any of your DD schemes to include Email Notification, please speak to your allpay Business Development Manager.

8.1 Capturing an Email Address for a New DDI

1. Complete Step 1 of the new DDI process as usual and select ‘Next’ to continue

2. At Step 2 under ‘Bank account holder details,’ you will have the option to record the customers’ email address

3. Continue with the setup process to the end of Step 4 and once you have confirmed, the system will send an email to your customer asking them to verify their email address to receive an email notification in the future

4. A letter will still be sent out for the setup confirmation

Note: Your customer must click on the email link sent to them to verify their email address and to confirm they can receive further communications via email, for us to utilise this communication method in the future. Until they verify their email address, allpay will continue to communicate via letter.

8.2 Capturing an Email Address for an Existing Customer

1. Search for your customer to view their account

2. Select ‘Contact details’

3. There is the option to capture the email address under the ‘Bank account holder details’

4. Select ‘Save’

5. The system will send an email to your customer asking them to verify their email address to receive all future correspondence in relation to their Direct Debit instruction via email

Note: Your customer must verify their email address with the link provided. This will confirm they will receive all future correspondence in relation to their Direct Debit Instruction via email. Until the customer verifies their email address, allpay will continue to correspond via letter.

If the customer requires another verification email to be sent out to them, you can:

Search for their account as above
Select ‘Contact details’ then ‘Resend verification email’

8.3 Exporting Email Address Status

You can download an email status report directly from the portal which includes emails pending verification of where no email address has been supplied on live Direct Debits.

1. From the Search tab, select Email address status

2. Select the client code you wish to report on

3. Select the Verification status and select Search:

All - all Direct Debits with verified email addresses, pending verifications, and those with no email supplied
No email address supplied- these Direct Debits do not have an email address supplied
Pending verification – this shows all Direct Debits that have an email address supplied but not yet verified by the customer
Email address verified – this shows all Direct Debits that have an email address live and verified

4. You can export the search results to an Excel format, and/or view individual customer details as required

5. The export will show a list of records and their verification status

8.4 Email Notification Bulk Template

You can upload email addresses in bulk using the Bulk Email/Mobile Template which can be found on the training page here: Templates | allpay

1. Using the information gathered in the Export email address status report you can fill in the mandatory columns A, B, D and AD and save the file ready to upload

Note: The file names should not include any of the following: # % & { } \ < > * ? / $ ! ' " : @ or blank spaces

2. From the Direct Debit home screen, select File then File Import DD

3. Browse for your file and upload

4. The Imported records summary will display the outcome of the initial upload

5. Select the records ready to submit. You can now submit all or selected records, or cancel all or selected records

6. Once submitted you will be able to review your Imported records batch summary

7. Any records unable to submit will be listed and these can be viewed and exported to review the error/reason for submission failure

8. If required, changes can be made then resubmitted following the above process a gin

9 Payment Notification via Email and/or SMS

Payment notifications can be enabled for any of your schemes and can be used to send out payment reminders, failed payment notification, and re-presentment notification to customers via email and/or SMS.

To take advantage of this feature the customer’s account should contain the email address and/or their mobile telephone number.

Note: We do not require the customer to verify their email address to receive payment notifications.

Details on how to capture an email address can be found in Section 8 – ‘Email Notification’.

For further details of payment notification please see the “Senior DD guide”.

9.1 Capturing a Mobile Telephone Number

You can capture a mobile telephone number for your customer in several ways:

New DDI – when setting up a new DD instruction you will be able to capture the customers' mobile telephone number at Step 2 of the process under ‘Bank account holder details’
Add to an existing DD – use the contact details section to add your customers’ mobile telephone number
Bulk upload – use the ‘Bulk Email/Mobile import template’ available in the ‘Help’ section to bulk upload customer mobile telephone numbers

10 Failed DD Payments

Failed DD payments are scheduled collections that have been returned unpaid via BACS.

10.1 Searching for Failed Payments

1. From the ‘Search’ tab, select ‘Failed payments’

2. Select a ’Client code’ from the drop-down box, enter any further search criteria and select ’Search’

Note: If a client code is enabled for re-presentment, the re-presentment date search criteria will also be displayed.

3. Review the list of failed payments. The ’Re-presentment date’ field indicates the date allpay will re-present the payment for collection

4. Select ’View Details’ to view an individual account

5. To export all the failed DD payments listed to an Excel spreadsheet select ‘Export Failed Payments’

11 Set-up Rules & Bacs Requirements

As an allpay user, you must ensure that you follow the script provided by allpay on the allpay Direct Debit portal for set-ups over the phone and face to face. This script has been approved by our sponsoring bank and Bacs. The use of this script shall ensure that the Payer has clear information and is left in no doubt that they have agreed to pay by Direct Debit and have set up a Direct Debit Instruction (DDI).

Collection& Validation of Payer’s Details:

It is important for you, the user, to verify the identity of the Payer and their address, before the creation of any Direct Debits
It is also essential that you, the user, obtain from the Payer, details of their bank account including the sort code, account number and account name
You MUST confirm that the Payer is the only person to authorise debits from this bank account. This information will assist allpay in its compliance with the rules of our sponsoring bank and Bacs before we can submit the Direct Debit Instruction (DDI) to the paying bank

Note: If the customer is not the account holder and therefore not the payer, or more than one person is required to authorise debits from the account, a paper DDI must be sent to the payer(s) for completion. The Direct Debit must not be set up until this paper DDI is completed and duly authorised by the payer(s). The original paper DDI MUST be sent to allpay.

As you enter the Payer’s account details into the allpay Direct Debit portal, either on the telephone or face to face, our portal will automatically perform a ‘modulus check’ on these details. This will enable you to correct any invalid information
During the sign-up process, you need to confirm to the Payer:

1. The first collection date

2. The frequency of the Direct Debit

3. The amount that will betaken

Note: If at any stage the payer does not wish to proceed with the Direct Debit sign-up process, a paper DDI can be sent unless a payer withdraws from requesting a Direct Debit payment completely. As always, the Direct Debit Instruction must not be set up until a completed paper DDI, duly authorised by the payer, has been received by you, our client.

11.1 Confirmation of Payer Sign-up Direct Debit Instruction Creation

allpay will issue the Payer with a written Direct Debit confirmation letter within three working days of sign-up. The letter will include the Payer’s sort code, account number (the first four digits will be obfuscated), account name, Direct Debit Guarantee and reference number.

This confirmation letter incorporates the Advance Notice and will be received by the Payer no later than the required advance notice period before the first collection, [i.e. in advance of the account being debited].

As the confirmation letter and the Advance Notice are incorporated as one, it also includes the amount to be debited, first collection date, frequency and advance notice period.

Payer’s Records: For the protection of Payers, allpay will maintain archive records of all communications with the Payer, i.e. Direct Debit Confirmation Letter and Advance Notice.

Note: Proof of dispatch of a confirmation letter incorporating advance notice is not proof of receipt by the payer.

We will maintain information for all your Payers’ current records. This will cover information in respect of:

Creation of new Direct Debit Instructions
Amendments and cancellations
Records of amounts and dates of payments collected including identification of initial and final Direct Debits

11.2 Contact Information

allpay provides a wide range of support services which covers all aspects of the business and its products and services. Normal office hours at allpay are 8:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday to Friday:

Contact details can be found on our website: www.allpay.net